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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27729475">(un)necessary</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/coppercaps/pseuds/coppercaps'>coppercaps</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Compilation of Final Fantasy VII</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Exhaustion, Headaches &amp; Migraines, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Whump</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 17:55:41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,515</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27729475</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/coppercaps/pseuds/coppercaps</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“The words had barely left Cloud’s mouth and he already felt awful for his terrible attempt at lightening up the mood. Maybe it had been doomed to fail anyway, due to the very present fear that was coiled tightly in his stomach.<br/>That Reno was dying in his bed with a brain bleed he had failed to notice all night. A stroke that no one would be surprised about, considering his lifestyle.<br/>But Rude would have said something, right? He wouldn’t just park Cloud next to a dying Reno when there was something that could be done. Right?”</p><p>In which Cloud is almost certain that Reno is dying, but Rude comes to the rescue.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Reno/Cloud Strife</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>41</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>(un)necessary</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“You know, if you’re cold, you could just ask me to turn on the heater”, Cloud murmured. <br/>
His eyes refused to open yet, and since the other didn’t dignify him with a confirmation nor refusal, his drowsy mind decided to snuggle a little closer, offering some more body heat instead, content to bask in the early morning laziness for just a little longer.</p><p>But the fog in his head was pushed back with each unsteady rise and fall below his cheek, and Cloud’s awareness was soon filled with his surroundings. Shallow and shaky breaths moved him up and down. The arms he thought were wrapped around him to comfort clung weakly to his body for support. What Cloud had thought was chilly morning air brushing his arms, revealed itself to be icy, clammy hands. <br/>
Mako-blue eyes snapped open, hyper-focused on their surroundings for a short moment to rule out any imminent threats. Once he was sure that there was no danger to be found, Cloud rose. The sensation of the other’s limbs falling loosely off his form immediately felt like a punch to his gut.<br/>
“Reno?”, Cloud asked as he turned to look at the man in question</p><p>His skin was white, ashen in a way that rang every single alarm bell in Cloud's head.<br/>
There was tension in how Reno laid still, too still, as if any movement put him at risk of being shattered like glass in a heartbeat.<br/>
“Reno, hey. What’s wrong?”<br/>
For a long moment, there was no reaction from Reno, nothing but his heavy breaths and trembling limbs. The silence was then broken by a breathy groan, pained with the effort of tearing his eyelids open for only just a little, parting until Cloud could make out red-tinted whites. What was supposed to be blue irises had been drowned out by wide-blown pupils that failed to meet his own. Reno swallowed with difficulty, the bob of his Adam’s apple making Cloud acutely aware of how thickly the muscles of his throat and jaw stood out with the tension they held.<br/>
The look Reno gave him had Cloud’s blood run cold, shaking his own body like a bucket of cold water dumped over his head. Panic gripped Cloud’s chest. <br/>
“Shit, what’s– Can you tell me what’s wrong? What can I do?”</p><p>Reno had half the energy to wince at Cloud’s outcry before his darkly rimmed eyelids fell close again. Pale lips motioned around silent words in aborted twitches rather than coherent sounds and movement, further unsettling Cloud to the point where his chest threatened to burst open with the need to take action.<br/>
“Ok, you don’t– Just– Damn. Don’t move, I’m getting help.”</p><p>Cloud practically fell out of the bed, tangled in blankets and his shorts and tank top. He was running for the small dining table before he even got his own legs properly under himself.<br/>
Hastily, he reached for Reno’s discarded PHS. He grabbed the device, roughly tapped on the button that would automatically call the only saved emergency contact, without much finesse. Cloud then steeled himself for answering to the rough voice he knew he would encounter in a moment.</p><p>Somewhere in sector zero, a PHS rang twice – too long, Cloud noted in the back of his mind, the other must still be asleep – before it was picked up and Cloud received his harsh words of greeting.<br/>
“Reno, do you know–“<br/>
“Hey, Rude, it’s Cloud.”<br/>
A break, just for a second, the silence absolute on the other side of the connections.<br/>
“Why do you have his phone?”<br/>
“He’s with me. There’s something wrong with him, I think he’s injured, badly.”<br/>
“How do you know? Can you get him on the phone?”<br/>
“No, he can’t speak. He can’t move. He’s shaking and his eyes are–“<br/>
“Is he bleeding?”</p><p>Blonde spikes peeked through the doorframe, blue eyes scanning dark grey sheets.<br/>
“I don’t think he is. At least not externally.”<br/>
“Alright, I think I know what’s going on. Close the curtains if you have any, turn off all lights. Don’t touch him. Got the GPS signal, I’m on my way.”<br/>
Cloud wanted to ask, get rid of at least some of the questions that billowed in his head, but Rude had hung up faster than Cloud could have spoken. Setting the phone aside, he turned to following the orders he had been given, heading to the bedroom and pulling close the flimsy dark blue fabric that framed his small bedroom windows. </p><p>There was a sound behind him that could have been a sigh of relief, but Cloud wasn’t sure.<br/>
“Rude’s on the way here. He says he knows what’s wrong.”<br/>
He kept his voice low, attempted to sound soothing although he was aware that he failed terribly. “Don’t die on me, yeah? Your cock is too good to bite the grass yet.”<br/>
The words had barely left Cloud’s mouth and he already felt awful for his terrible attempt at lightening up the mood. Reno could've pulled it off. Maybe it had been doomed to fail due to the very present fear that was coiled tightly in Cloud's stomach.</p><p>That Reno was dying in his bed with a brain bleed that he had failed to notice all night. Struck down by poison overlooked during the mission that had kept Reno out of Midgar for the past weeks. Offed by an aneurysm that had busted by stress. A stroke that no one would be surprised about, considering Reno's lifestyle.<br/>
But Rude would have said something, right? He wouldn’t just park Cloud next to a dying Reno when there was something that could be done. Right?</p><p>Taking initiative, Cloud decided that the “no touching” rule didn’t apply to Reno’s surroundings. He readjusted the blankets to give Reno more space, to hopefully make him feel less crowded and thus a bit more comfortable.<br/>
The now exposed skin showed how Reno’s torso cramped up with each hasted breath that he drew in, lean muscles rising and dipping in exaggerated definition in their unnatural state of tension. <br/>
“Shit… What did you do, Reno?”</p><p>The low sound of Reno’s PHS ringtone tore Cloud away from his staring. Reno keened, fucking <em>keened</em>, at the noise from the other room, and Cloud ran over to relieve him of the trigger with murmured expletives and apologies.<br/>
“Yeah, Rude?”<br/>
“Open the door, I’m here.”</p><p>Once more, Cloud scurried to follow what he had been told. Rude let himself in without any hesitance, scanning the space and heading towards the bedroom without faltering in his step.<br/>
As quietly as possible, Cloud shut the door and followed, but kept his distance and remained by the doorframe to leave Rude the space he needed to act.</p><p>A small surge of relief filled Cloud at the sight of Rude, without his trademark sunglasses, in a tight black t-shirt, grey sweatpants and trainers, sitting down next to his unmoving– …<br/>
Cloud refused to finish the sentence in his head. Reno wasn’t his friend. Wasn’t his lover. Wasn’t his b–</p><p>“Hey partner. It’s me. I’m going to touch you, don’t startle”, Rude warned in a low voice, barely more than a whisper, before he reached past Reno’s throat with both hands.<br/>
The gentleness in Rude’s voice would have been a nice surprise on any other day, but at this moment, it concerned Cloud immensely. He watched as a set of fore- and middle fingers felt around the base of Reno’s skull while his thumbs gently brushed along the vein alongside his throat that angrily shone through Reno’s pale skin. One hand dominated his motions and the other followed, mirroring the movements, mapping out both sides of Reno’s delicate throat and neck.</p><p>“Hurts”, Reno finally rasped and Rude’s previously restrained features softened impossibly at that.<br/>
Cloud’s chest clenched with the impulse to reach out and help, protect, make Reno feel better. He stashed away the emotions in a corner of his mind to analyze and wonder about later. Instead, he pulled himself to focus on the image of one of Gaia’s most proficient, ruthless killers helplessly wasting away while an equally insidious man tended to him as a mother would see to a child’s ailments.<br/>
Cloud's fingers twitched, and he wished this was just a monster that he could slay.<br/>
Rude seemed to remain unaware of Cloud's inner turmoil. Or maybe he was aware of it but knew to focus on the task at hand.<br/>
“I know. I promise I will make it better, but I need you to open your eyes for a moment. Can you do that for me?”</p><p>It was clear to everyone in the room that the shuddering breath that escaped carried exhaustion, agony and desperation, replacing a plethora of emotions that Reno was incapable of voicing otherwise right now. <br/>
“He can’t”, Cloud interjects and Rude shakes his head, “He has to.”<br/>
Both sets of eyes fell onto the suffering man before them, watched as his jaw began to tremble with exertion. It took him a few tries, teeth gritting and features pinching, before Reno managed to crack his eyes open just a bit.<br/>
Rude wasted no time adjusting his position so the sparse light in the room would catch in Reno’s eyes long enough for Rude to assess the situation. It took barely more than a second for him to nod his own confirmation and hover over Reno again, shielding him from the stray, dimmed sun rays.<br/>
If Cloud didn’t know better, he would have thought Reno had just concluded the feat with a distressed sob.<br/>
But Cloud knew better. Reno wouldn’t sob. Not in pain. Not ever.</p><p>“I need to open your mouth now, sorry.”<br/>
Cloud’s ears strained to hear the apology, but he didn’t miss it.<br/>
Reno let Rude pry his mouth open, seemingly without any conscious resistance, without visually acknowledging that he perceived Rude’s actions at all. A small packet was produced from one pocket of Rude’s sweatpants. Rude singlehandedly tore it open while he kept Reno’s mouth agape at his chin with the thumb of his left hand, the other fingers keeping his neck lifted off the mattress so his head was slightly tipped.<br/>
Once again, Reno was warned of the next steps, “Here it comes. Nice and slow”, before Rude proceeded to pour the powdery contents of the package into Reno’s mouth. “There you go.”</p><p>The shiny packet was discarded and instead, Rude returned both hands to Reno’s head. His thumbs circled at his temples while the rest of his fingers massaged Reno’s neck with slow but what appeared to be persistently pressuring strokes.<br/>
“That’s it. You will be better in a moment.”</p><p>Rude’s actions and words felt routined to Cloud. Practiced, as if he’d done it times and times before. He touched Reno so naturally, it made Cloud wonder whether all Turks are this familiar with each other on what felt like a very intimate level. </p><p>Minutes of quietly muttered reassurances and routined movements passed until Reno finally seemed to relax. The tension slowly dissipated from his features, the tremors in his hands ebbed away, and his breathing deepened, finally falling into a steady rhythm.<br/>
Reno’s face appeared even paler in the stark contrast of Rude’s skin as he felt his forehead before he nodded to himself and retreated. Rude took the time to straighten the twisted blanket over Reno’s body, tugged him in like a mother would make sure their child was comfortable for a good nights’ rest. Apparently deeming his work done, Rude rose to his feet and left the bedroom, but not without motioning to a bewildered Cloud to close the door.</p><p>“Is he injured?”, Cloud finally asked as they gathered around his dining table.<br/>
“No. Paralyzed, you could say. He–“, Rude sighs, heavy and weary, “He is an idiot. He should have known.”<br/>
“Known what?”<br/>
“That he exhausted his mana. Give it a few hours and he gets a very painful migraine, as you can see. This could have been prevented if he hadn’t thought with his dick and had taken his medicine before he came here.”<br/>
Cloud nods in understanding, ignoring the remark about Reno's dick. “How come you have it?”<br/>
“He has stashes almost everywhere. I’m surprised he hasn’t left some here too. You two aren’t exactly a new thing, are you?”<br/>
The hint of a blush warmed Cloud’s cheeks, so he turned away from Rude.<br/>
“Define <em>new</em>. And <em>thing</em>.”<br/>
“That answers the question already”, Rude chuckled.<br/>
Two more packets changed their location from Rude’s pockets to the dining table.<br/>
“I will leave these here, for the next time. If he overestimates himself again, make him swallow one of these. Guide him through it though, he can’t comprehend what’s happening.”<br/>
“Thanks. But what makes you think he will come here again?”</p><p>This time, Rude smirked at Cloud’s reaction.<br/>
“Give him an hour to sleep off the worst of it. And tell him he owes me brunch for dragging me into such a mess. A good place though, upper plate, not a rundown Wall Market stall.”<br/>
With that, Rude left the small apartment as quickly as he had entered it, closing the door behind himself this time.</p><p>Cloud sighed into the newly settled silence of his apartment. A moment passed, then another, and another, before he tiptoed back into his bedroom.</p><p>Reno was still resting, now peacefully. His features finally seemed relaxed, the agony having left to reveal the hint of mischief that always seemed to glint within every expression, be it anger, joy, or attraction.<br/>
Especially attraction.<br/>
“Shit. What are we doing here?”</p><p>“Not fucking around.”<br/>
Even mako-heightened SOLDIER senses couldn’t protect Cloud from the scare the unexpected reply gave him. “Shit, Reno, don’t scare me like that!”<br/>
With a wide grin on his face, Reno opened one eye just a crack, but enough for Cloud to finally see the ocean blue again. “Sorry, Cloudy. Didn’t mean to.”<br/>
“Didn’t mean to make me think you’re dying on me, or make me believe you’re sleeping only to almost give me a heart attack?”<br/>
“Yes. And”, Reno shifted, turning so his back was facing the windows, “expose you to Rude’s prying.”<br/>
“He says you owe him above the plate brunch.”<br/>
“ ‘Course he does.”<br/>
The offense in Reno’s voice was fake, but Cloud didn’t doubt that Reno was serious about apologizing for making Cloud call Rude for help when the situation could have been avoided.</p><p>“So what are we doing here?”, Cloud asked once more.<br/>
“Not having this conversation. My head fucking hurts.”<br/>
“Tch.”<br/>
“Come here and get some more sleep too.”</p><p>Once more, Cloud did what he was told, and he had half the mind to notice that following Turks’ orders seemed to become a rather concerning habit. He would worry about that later though. <br/>
Then and there, all he wanted to was to snuggle back into the comfort of his bed, to his whatever-they-were, and enjoy the recovered peace of a Sunday morning.<br/>
So for once, he just did that, followed his desire without thinking too much about what would come next.</p><p>“Know what though?”<br/>
“Huh?”<br/>
“You really could turn on that heater.”</p>
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